Islanders feel rise in stress between Koreas

EAST ASIA

Martin Fackler, New York Times

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, June 28, 2009

Photo: Woohae Cho, NYT

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South Korean naval vessels off the coast of Yeonpyeong Island on June 18, 2009. South Korea has 1,000 marines on heightened alert on the island, which sits precariously off the coast of a hostile North Korea. (Woohae Cho/The New York Times) less

South Korean naval vessels off the coast of Yeonpyeong Island on June 18, 2009. South Korea has 1,000 marines on heightened alert on the island, which sits precariously off the coast of a hostile North Korea. ... more

Photo: Woohae Cho, NYT

Islanders feel rise in stress between Koreas

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Sitting in front of his house, mending a fishing net with hands gnarled by years of pulling a living from the sea, Kim Sang-jin recalled the last time North and South Korea clashed militarily in the nearby Yellow Sea.

It was seven years ago, and the gunfire from the warships in the two-hour naval skirmish was close enough to rattle his windows, sending him and his wife ducking for cover. Now, with tensions escalating since the North's nuclear test last month and the subsequent U.N. sanctions, he said he and other residents feared a new battle could erupt at any moment near this small South Korean-controlled island, which sits precariously off the coast of a hostile North Korea.

"We are always afraid, every day," said Kim, 66, who lives two doors down from a neighborhood bomb shelter. "But you get used to living with the fear."

As a North Korean freighter suspected of carrying banned weapons heads toward Burma with a U.S. Navy destroyer on its tail, the chances of a confrontation with the North - which has said it would consider interception an act of war - are rising. And South Korean military experts say that this lonely island, which is also claimed by the North, is the most likely place for that clash to occur, with the North possibly provoking a limited battle as part of its risky brinkmanship with the United States and other countries.

Yeonpyeong Island sits just 2 miles from the so-called northern limit line, a watery extension of the demilitarized zone dividing the Koreas. It was the scene of two deadly sea battles in the past decade.

South Korea has since dispatched the first of its newest class of "patrol killer" guided-missile ships, designed especially for the close-range naval skirmishes that have taken place in these waters. The ship, the Yoon Young-ha, was named after one of six South Korean sailors killed in the second battle, in 2002, which the North won.

With that and the island's garrison of some 1,000 marines on heightened alert, the South seems almost to be spoiling for a fight. At a recent ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the first of the two previous naval battles here, when the South said it bested the North by sinking 10 of its vessels, Lt. Cmdr. Kwon Young-il vowed that if the North struck again, "we will sink them."

Many of the island's 1,600 civilian residents, mostly graying fishermen, said they felt caught in the middle. But they also say they are accustomed to the periodic escalations in tensions, which they describe as just another part of life on this disputed island.

Most said they were determined to go about their daily work of running their crab boats or tending fish traps along the island's rocky coast.

"This is not the first time that North Korea has tested missiles and bombs," said Kim Seung-ju, who heads the island's branch of the national agricultural cooperative. "It doesn't rattle us."

Indeed, with its concrete bunkers, tank traps and lines of trenches, the island seems like a Cold War time capsule. Islanders conduct monthly air raid drills and keep gas masks in their homes. Posters at local restaurants warn residents to be on the lookout for North Korean spy boats and submarines. Since the nuclear test, the island has stocked its 19 civilian bomb shelters with fresh water and dried noodles.

Visitors to the island are screened at the ferry landing by military police officers searching for North Korean agents. Though the island is just 8 miles from the coast of North Korea, its only regular link to the rest of the South is a 66-mile, 21/2-hour ferry ride.

While it has been business as usual in most of South Korea during the nuclear standoff, the tension is noticeable in Yeonpyeong. In one potentially ominous sign, residents say many of the Chinese crab boats that annually fish these waters have left, though it was unclear if they had been warned off by North Korea or had simply gone home because the crab season was over.

Still, some islanders and members of the military say the tensions are not as high as in the 1970s, when the North tried to claim the island and sent its jet fighters flying overhead. These days, the South seems much more confident in its material superiority over the impoverished North.

"We have the technology," said retired Lt. Gen. Kim In-sik, a former commandant of the South Korean Marine Corps, who visited the island recently to bolster troop morale. "But it is still possible the North will attack this zone to increase pressure" as part of its broader bargaining strategy against Seoul and Washington.

Kim, the leader of the agricultural cooperative, said the islanders were ardently anti-communist because many of them, including his mother, fled the North during and after the 1950-53 Korean War. At the same time, these ties to the North make him and other islanders feel that neither Korea wants another full-scale war.

In fact, they said the dangers here were often overstated. Many islanders complained that the higher tensions have scared away tourists and brought phone calls from worried relatives asking why they insist on living in such a risky place.

Some islanders even groused that the only invaders they had seen were the hordes of South Korean reporters and television crew members, who descend on them during every standoff with the North.

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